Critique my Metal song mix?

[ambler3]

I recorded a some friends' band at college a while back, and just finished mixing it. It's not quite finished, partially because I mixed it on my shitty set of Senn HD201s (need to get some new cans at some point), and also because I could potentially EQ guitars and TOMs.

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/rufus-ambler/atlas-blind[/SC]

I've put info on gear/mics used on my soundcloud.

I used Glenn Frickers methods of doing bass, using a really quiet buzzy bass track. The guitars and bass to me sound fine, but I can't quite make the vocals sit nicely in the mix.

Any tips on how to improve anything, or bad things that I should note would be welcome!
If it helps, I can upload separate mixes (guitar+bass only, Vocals only etc.)

EDIT: Listening to it again, Maybe the guitars&bass could be a little louder. They sound slightly distant in a way.

..also maybe the kick volume could be lowered during the quiet sections?

 

[ambler3]

Just done another mix of it, now EQ'd the guitars, fixed guitar volume levels. Much happier with it over all.

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/rufus-ambler/atlas-blind-mix-2[/SC]

 

[guitarfan85]

Guitars def need to be louder. Maybe overall the whole track could be a bit louder. Its not my taste of music but it certainly has its place somewhere. I give everything a chance. Good job

 

[AdenM]

First off, nice job on the recording man! Reminds me alot of The Sword.

Ok, so advice. I would boost the guitars futher in the mids and compress them, not so much that they lose lifelessness, but so that they add a little more attack - they sound really good in the second mix though. Kick, especially in the beginning, could use some beef and compression as well (Again, the Sword's Lawless Lands - starts off with a kick as well and it sounds massive - same with the beef on the snare. I'd kind of EQ cymbals so they sit more at the top of the mix than at the as well - especially high hat, cuts through right where the guitars are around the 1:00. Again, nice work!

 

[ambler3]

Yeah, in the second mix I feel i've got to a decent point with the guitars, but it ain't quite there. I EQ'd em, so was cutting stuff like 1k/2k and a slight boost at 4-5k depending on which take we're talking about.
Compression is one thing I haven't thought about yet, i'll give it a shot at some point.

I was really pleased with the kick, a D6 really deep, pointing towards the beater works just as well as a trigger to my ears.

I'll see what I can do with your tips

 

[Aion]

Guitars def need to be louder. Maybe overall the whole track could be a bit louder. Its not my taste of music but it certainly has its place somewhere. I give everything a chance. Good job

If everything needs to be louder then you should turn up your speakers, he should not increase the volume on the mix. Making sure the entire thing is loud enough is a mastering problem, not a mixing one.

I might put some gating on the drums. Those cymbals especially sound really ringy to me and it would help cut that down and give the overall sound a bit more punch. Put that could be the cymbal sound you're going for. Either way, I think a little wouldn't hurt and it's worth trying.

 

[9Lives]

Main rythm guitars. Loose the verb or delay. It's making them wash out. I never use that on rythm tracks. Only lead

 

[kylea1]

sorry wrong post

 

[ambler3]

Have already comp'd a fair bit of the drums, OH included. Rather inexperienced working with gates though to be fair.

And sadly..the patches I used on my POD for the recording had the reverb...so there ain't a chance of cutting it out I think, unless I re-record it that is.

 

[Aion]

Basically an expander or gate is like a reverse compressor. Instead of lowering the volume of peaks it lowers the volume of troughs (as in when it's quiet, the opposite of peaks). An expander will lower the volume by a certain amount (determined by ratio, just like a compressor) when the signal is below a certain volume. A gate is like a limiter in that when the sound goes below a certain point it cuts off the sound completely.

Expander gets its name because it increases the dynamic range of the channel by making the quiet parts quieter but keeping the loud parts at the same volume. A gate gets its name because, well, it acts like the gate of a fence. When the gate is closed no sound gets through, when it opens, stuff does get through. Here's a good starter video for how it gets used on drums. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vasGYUssAn4

If you want to know pretty much what all the controls do, here is a quick dictionary of gate terms for controls in ReaGate.

Threshold: At what volume does the gate open and close. A higher threshold will let in less overall sound.

Pre-Open: Exclusive to digital gates and recording (at least as far as I know) pre-open will "look ahead," if you will by however many milliseconds you tell it to. Say you set it to 10 ms. If in 10 ms the gate would open, it starts opening now. This can be useful to either get a swell type sound out of your gate (by also setting a longer attack). It can also just lead to a more natural sound that lets in more transients if you set a short pre-open and essentially setting a normal attack (normal being something different for every track).

Attack: How quickly the expander or gate "opens," and lets sound through. Longer attacks will give more of a swell sound and are more of an effect rather than a way to clean up the sound. Drums generally have shorter attacks because you want to hear the sound of the actual hit.

Hold: How long before the gate starts to close after the volume drops the threshold. Instrument volume tends to oscillate slightly. So what sometimes happens is when the gate is open and the volume starts to drop, it oscillates around the threshold. This causes the gate to keep closing and opening, which is not a sound you want (my best description of the sound it makes is, "wub"). By setting a hold time, if the instrument volume is oscillating, this will make sure the gate doesn't start to close until it is actually below the threshold rather than just oscillating around it.

Release: How quickly the gate shuts or the expander pulls the volume down. A shorter release will shut faster and help give punch, a longer release will make it sound more natural. A shorter release is generally used for drums. I would use a longer release on a guitar noise gate so the sustain fades more naturally.

Hysteresis: Generally the noise gate automatically makes the release threshold a little lower than the attack threshold in order to prevent that wubbiness I referred to early. Many gates do not have a control for this, but some do. Negative hysteresis will lower the release threshold, positive hyteresis will increase it. I pretty much never play with this control... but that's because I didn't actually know what it did until right now.

Low and High Pass Filters: These do not act as LPF and HPF do in EQ. Rather, they are used to determine what frequency range will actually open and close the gate. Say you have a snare drum, you don't want the kick drum bleed to open the gate. Using a HPF you can prevent the low frequencies from the kick from opening the gate.

RMS: Not a common setting, and one I have never used, but here goes an attempt to explain it. Basically the plugin can understand the signal in one of two ways. At 0 ms it bases what it is doing off of the the current volume. Longer RMS Sizes will take the time to determine an average volume level of the signal and use that to determine the gates actions. It can be very useful, but I still don't fully understand it and so I have avoided using it.

You might find exapnders/gates with different words for what is ultimately the same thing, but if you understand those terms, you should have a solid understanding for alternative terminology. The most important things to understand are threshold, attack, hold, and release. If you are good with those then you'll be fine to use a gate.